What a delight!

Yesterday was my day at Bourne Grammar School working with 17 15 year old girls who are studying GCSE textiles. Well they had a great time and so did I. It is funny how inspiring someone else can result in them inspiring you! I can away with more ideas for more classes, and plans to teach some more days at the school next term. It was great to see an institution so keen to develop the creative skills of their students, though, alas, they are not immune to cuts, and textiles seems to be an easy target "as it's only a bit of sewing!"

The two teachers I worked with, Miss Hind and Mrs Fordham, were brilliant, and seemed to enjoy the day as much as the girls. They really work hard on inspiring the creativity in the girls and we came up with a few ideas just during our tea break!

The plan for this day was that the girls would each create a panel related to the Olympics which would be sewn together at a later date. They wanted me to show the girls some other techniques, so we chose a piece which involves layering cottons and silks, securing them with stitching through organza, and then melting the top layer with a heat gun in a well ventilated room! After that they machine appliquéd Olympic symbols and added a little beading to add some 'bling'!

So after a day of fun with the best behaved teenage girls I have ever met, we came up with the following....

 

With the same brief they certainly came up with a lot of different results, with the torch, doves, laurel leaves and 2012! There are 18 pieces in all (some went home to be finished) and Miss Hind is going to sew them all together and mount them on canvas. I will publish that picture when it is done. I think you will, agree that they did a cracking job. Well done girls!